Baldwin EMC recently recognized four of its employees for their respective heroic actions in 2017.
Ray Bishop, Kevin Dorman, Louis Ruffin and Jody Taylor were honored with the Baldwin EMC/Touchstone Energy Power and Hope award, which recognizes co-op employees for exceptional actions that provide power and hope within the cooperative network or the communities in which the employees serve.
Bishop, Baldwin EMC’s facilities and maintenance specialist, received the award for his efforts to help save a stranger who found himself in the parking lot of Baldwin EMC’s Summerdale office while suffering from a diabetic emergency. When the man refused to allow paramedics to be called, Bishop helped him get his medication and stayed with him until he was able to drive again.
Hurricane Nate provided the scenario that led to Power and Hope awards for Dorman, Ruffin and Taylor. The three of them worked together to provide an emergency generator to Florida resident Carol Grozier, the mother of Baldwin EMC employee Salina Jenkins. Following Hurricane Nate, Dorman and Ruffin, both crew chiefs for Baldwin EMC, had been sent to Florida to help restore power. When Taylor, Baldwin EMC’s vice president of operations, learned that Grozier, who lives in Orange Springs, Fla., was unable to use the oxygen machine she depends on to breathe, he orchestrated a plan that resulted in Dorman and Ruffin going above and beyond to connect a generator at Grozier’s home.
“We can train anybody on what to do in case of an emergency. But it takes a special person to be able to take that knowledge and actually use it,” says Baldwin EMC’s Vice President of Corporate Services and Public Relations Mark Ingram.
The Baldwin EMC/Touchstone Energy Power and Hope award was introduced in 2007. To date, 22 Baldwin EMC employees have been recognized with the award.